ns,
are to the Young, the Gay, and the Healthy, the more necessary are they
to be inculcated. Religion never since the Reformation was at so low an
Ebb as at present: And if there be those, who suppose this Work to be of
the Novel Kind, it may not be amiss, even in the Opinion of such, to
try whether, by an Accommodation to the light Taste of the Age a
Religious Novel will do Good.

But altho' the Work, according to the Account thus far given of it, may
be thought to wear a solemn Aspect, and is indeed intended to be of the
Tragic Species, it will not be amiss to acquaint our youthful Readers,
that they will find in the Letters of the Gentlemen, and even in many of
those of one of the Ladies, Scenes and Subjects of a diverting Turn; one
of the Men humorously, yet not uninstructively, glorying in his Talents
for Stratagem and Invention, as he communicates to the other, in
Confidence, all the secret Purposes of his Heart.

Not uninstructively, we repeat; for it is proper to apprise the serious
Reader, and such as may apprehend Hurt to the Morals of Youth from their
Perusal of the more freely written Letters, that the Gentlemen, tho'
professed Libertines as to the Fair Sex, are not, however, Infidels or
Scoffers; nor yet such as think themselves freed from the Observance of
those other moral Obligations which bind Man to Man. / /

[4]

The Reader is referred to the Postscript, at the End of the last Volume,
for what may be further necessary to be observed in relation to this
Work.

Judges will see, that, long as the Work is, there is not one Digression,
not one Episode, not one Reflection, but what arises naturally from the
Subject, and makes for it, and to carry it on.

Variety of Styles and Circumstances.

The Two first Volumes chiefly written by the Two Ladies.
Two next....................................by Lovelace.
Three last.....................by the reforming Belford.

Whence different Styles, Manners, &c. that make Episodes useless.

~_Clarissa an Example to the Reader: The Example not to be taken from the
Reader._~

The vicious Characters in this History are more pure, Images more
chaste, than in the most virtuous of the Dramatic Poets.

Clarissa is so ready to find fault with herself on every Occasion, that
we cannot consent, that a Character so exemplary in the greater Points
should suffer merely from the Inattention of the hasty Reader. Let us
therefore consider of some of the Objections